Factor VIII, von willebrand factor or complexes thereof with prolonged in vivo half-life

ABSTRACT

The present invention relates to modified nucleic acid sequences coding for coagulation factor VIII (FVIII) and for von Willebrand factor (VWF) as well as complexes thereof and their derivatives, recombinant expression vectors containing such nucleic acid sequences, host cells transformed with such recombinant expression vectors, recombinant polypeptides and derivatives coded for by said nucleic acid sequences which recombinant polypeptides and derivatives do have biological activities together with prolonged in vivo half-life and/or improved in vivo recovery compared to the unmodified wild-type protein. The invention also relates to corresponding FVIII sequences that result in improved expression yield. The present invention further relates to processes for the manufacture of such recombinant proteins and their derivatives. The invention also relates to a transfer vector for use in human gene therapy, which comprises such modified nucleic acid sequences.

This is a national stage application of International Application No. PCT/EP2009/004549, filed Jun. 24, 2009, which claims the benefit of EP 08011429.1, filed Jun. 24, 2008, both of which are incorporated herein by reference.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates to modified nucleic acid sequences coding for coagulation factor VIII (FVIII) and for von Willebrand factor (VWF) as well as complexes thereof and their derivatives, recombinant expression vectors containing such nucleic acid sequences, host cells transformed with such recombinant expression vectors, recombinant polypeptides and derivatives coded for by said nucleic acid sequences which recombinant polypeptides and derivatives do have biological activities together with prolonged in vivo half-life and/or improved in vivo recovery compared to the unmodified wild-type protein. The invention also relates to corresponding FVIII sequences that result in improved expression yield. The present invention further relates to processes for the manufacture of such recombinant proteins and their derivatives. The invention also relates to a transfer vector for use in human gene therapy, which comprises such modified nucleic acid sequences.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

There are various bleeding disorders caused by deficiencies of blood coagulation factors. The most common disorders are hemophilia A and B, resulting from deficiencies of blood coagulation factor VIII and IX, respectively. Another known bleeding disorder is von Willebrand's disease.

In plasma FVIII exists mostly as a noncovalent complex with VWF and its coagulant function is to accelerate factor IXa dependent conversion of factor X to Xa Due to the complex formation of FVIII and VWF it was assumed for a long time that FVIII and VWF functions are two functions of the same molecule. Only in the seventies it became clear that FVIII and VWF are separate molecules that form a complex under physiologic conditions. In the eighties then the dissociation constant of about 0.2 nmol/L was determined (Leyte et al., Biochem J 1989, 257: 679-683) and the DNA sequence of both molecules was studied.

Classic hemophilia or hemophilia A is an inherited bleeding disorder. It results from a chromosome X-linked deficiency of blood coagulation FVIII, and affects almost exclusively males with an incidence of between one and two individuals per 10,000. The X-chromosome defect is transmitted by female carriers who are not themselves hemophiliacs. The clinical manifestation of hemophilia A is an increased bleeding tendency. Before treatment with FVIII concentrates was introduced the mean life span for a person with severe hemophilia was less than 20 years. The use of concentrates of FVIII from plasma has considerably improved the situation for the hemophilia A patients increasing the mean life span extensively, giving most of them the possibility to live a more or less normal life. However, there have been certain problems with the plasma derived concentrates and their use, the most serious of which have been the transmission of viruses. So far, viruses causing hepatitis B, non-A non-B hepatitis and AIDS have hit the population seriously. Since then different virus inactivation methods and new highly purified FVIII concentrates have recently been developed which established a very high safety standard also for plasma derived FVIII.

The cloning of the cDNA for FVIII (Wood et al. 1984. Nature 312:330-336; Vehar et al. 1984. Nature 312:337-342) made it possible to express FVIII recombinantly leading to the development of several recombinant FVIII products, which were approved by the regulatory authorities between 1992 and 2003. The fact that the central B domain of the FVIII polypeptide chain residing between amino acids Arg-740 and Glu-1649 does not seem to be necessary for full biological activity has also led to the development of a B domain deleted FVIII.

The mature FVIII molecule consists of 2332 amino acids which can be grouped into three homologous A domains, two homologous C domains and a B Domain which are arranged in the order: A1-A2-B-A3-C1-C2. The complete amino acid sequence of mature human FVIII is shown in SEQ ID NO:15. During its secretion into plasma FVIII is processed intracellularly into a series of metal-ion linked heterodimers as single chain FVIII is cleaved at the B-A3 boundary and at different sites within the B-domain. This processing leads to heterogeneous heavy chain molecules consisting of the A1, the A2 and various parts of the B-domain which have a molecular size ranging from 90 kDa to 200 kDa. The heavy chains are bound via a metal ion to the light chains, which consist of the A3, the C1 and the C2 domain (Saenko et al. 2002. Vox Sang. 83:89-96). In plasma this heterodimeric FVIII binds with high affinity to von Willebrand Factor (VWF), which protects it from premature catabolism. The half-life of non-activated FVIII bound to VWF is about 12 hours in plasma.

Coagulation FVIII is activated via proteolytic cleavage by FXa and thrombin at amino acids Arg372 and Arg740 within the heavy chain and at Arg1689 in the light chain resulting in the release of von Willebrand Factor and generating the activated FVIII heterotrimer which will form the tenase complex on phospholipid surfaces with FIXa and FX provided that Ca²⁺ is present. The heterotrimer consists of the A1 domain, a 50 kDa fragment, the A2 domain, a 43 kDa fragment and the light chain (A3-C1-C2), a 73 kDa fragment. Thus the active form of FVIII (FVIIIa) consists of an A1-subunit associated through the divalent metal ion linkage to a thrombin-cleaved A3-C1-C2 light chain and a free A2 subunit relatively loosely associated with the A1 and the A3 domain.

To avoid excessive coagulation, FVIIIa must be inactivated soon after activation. The inactivation of FVIIIa via activated Protein C (APC) by cleavage at Arg336 and Arg562 is not considered to be the major rate-limiting step. It is rather the dissociation of the non covalently attached A2 subunit from the heterotrimer which is thought to be the rate limiting step in FVIIIa inactivation after thrombin activation (Fay et al. 1991. J. Biol. Chem. 266 8957, Fay & Smudzin 1992. J. Biol. Chem. 267:13246-50). This is a rapid process, which explains the short half-life of FVIIIa in plasma, which is only 2.1 minutes (Saenko et al. 2002. Vox Sang. 83:89-96).

In severe hemophilia A patients undergoing prophylactic treatment FVIII has to be administered intravenously (i.v.) about 3 times per week due to the short plasma half-life of FVIII of about 12 to 14 hours. Each i.v. administration is cumbersome, associated with pain and entails the risk of an infection especially as this is mostly done at home by the patients themselves or by the parents of children being diagnosed for hemophilia A.

It would thus be highly desirable to create a FVIII with increased functional half-life allowing the manufacturing of pharmaceutical compositions containing FVIII, which have to be administered less frequently.

Several attempts have been made to prolong the half-life of non-activated FVIII either by reducing its interaction with cellular receptors (WO 03/093313A2, WO 02/060951A2), by covalently attaching polymers to FVIII (WO 94/15625, WO 97/11957 and U.S. Pat. No. 4,970,300), by encapsulation of FVIII (WO 99/55306), by introduction of novel metal binding sites (WO 97/03193), by covalently attaching the A2 domain to the A3 domain either by peptidic (WO 97/40145 and WO 03/087355) or disulfide linkage (WO 02/103024A2) or by covalently attaching the A1 domain to the A2 domain (WO2006/108590).

Another approach to enhance the functional half-life of FVIII or VWF is by PEGylation of FVIII (WO 2007/126808, WO 2006/053299, WO 2004/075923) or by PEGylation of VWF (WO 2006/071801) which pegylated VWF by having an increased half-life would indirectly also enhance the half-life of FVIII present in plasma.

As none of the above described approaches has yet resulted in an approved FVIII pharmaceutical and as introducing mutations into the FVIII wild-type sequence or introducing chemical modifications entails at least a theoretical risk of creating immunogenic FVIII variants there is an ongoing need to develop modified coagulation factor VIII molecules which exhibit prolonged half-life.

In view of a potential thrombogenic risk it is more desirable to prolong the half-life of the non-activated form of FVIII than that of FVIIIa.

VWF, which is missing, functionally defect or only available in reduced quantity in different forms of von Willebrand disease (VWD), is a multimeric adhesive glycoprotein present in the plasma of mammals, which has multiple physiological functions. During primary hemostasis VWF acts as a mediator between specific receptors on the platelet surface and components of the extracellular matrix such as collagen. Moreover, VWF serves as a carrier and stabilizing protein for procoagulant FVIII. VWF is synthesized in endothelial cells and megakaryocytes as a 2813 amino acid precursor molecule. The amino acid sequence and the cDNA sequence of wild-type VWF are disclosed in Collins et al. 1987, Proc Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 84:4393-4397. The precursor polypeptide, pre-pro-VWF, consists of a 22-residue signal peptide, a 741-residue pro-peptide and the 2050-residue polypeptide found in mature plasma VWF (Fischer et al., FEBS Lett. 351: 345-348, 1994). After cleavage of the signal peptide in the endoplasmatic reticulum a C-terminal disulfide bridge is formed between two monomers of VWF. During further transport through the secretory pathway 12 N-linked and 10 O-linked carbohydrate side chains are added. More important, VWF dimers are multimerized via N-terminal disulfide bridges and the propeptide of 741 amino acids length is cleaved off by the enzyme PACE/furin in the late Golgi apparatus. The propeptide as well as the high-molecular-weight multimers of VWF (VWF-HMWM) are stored in the Weibel-Pallade bodies of endothelial cells or in the α-Granules of platelets.

Once secreted into plasma the protease ADAMTS13 cleaves VWF within the A1 domain of VWF. Plasma VWF therefore consists of a whole range of multimers ranging from single dimers of 500 kDa to multimers consisting of up to more than 20 dimers of a molecular weight of over 10,000 kDa. The VWF-HMWM hereby having the strongest hemostatic activity, which can be measured in ristocetin cofactor activity (VWF:RCo). The higher the ratio of VWF:RCo/VWF antigen, the higher the relative amount of high molecular weight multimers.

Defects in VWF are causal to von Willebrand disease (VWD), which is characterized by a more or less pronounced bleeding phenotype. VWD type 3 is the most severe form in which VWF is completely missing, VWD type 1 relates to a quantitative loss of VWF and its phenotype can be very mild. VWD type 2 relates to qualitative defects of VWF and can be as severe as VWD type 3. VWD type 2 has many sub forms some of them being associated with the loss or the decrease of high molecular weight multimers. Von VWD type 2a is characterized by a loss of both intermediate and large multimers. VWD type 2B is characterized by a loss of highest-molecular-weight multimers.

VWD is the most frequent inherited bleeding disorder in humans and can be treated by replacement therapy with concentrates containing VWF of plasmatic or recombinant origin. VWF can be prepared from human plasma as for example described in EP 05503991. EP 0784632 describes a method for isolating recombinant VWF.

In plasma FVIII binds with high affinity to von VWF, which protects it from premature catabolism and thus, plays in addition to its role in primary hemostasis a crucial role to regulate plasma levels of FVIII and as a consequence is also a central factor to control secondary hemostasis. The half-life of non-activated FVIII bound to VWF is about 12 to 14 hours in plasma. In von Willebrand disease type 3, where no or almost no VWF is present, the half-life of FVIII is only about 6 hours, leading to symptoms of mild to moderate hemophilia A in such patients due to decreased concentrations of FVIII. The stabilizing effect of VWF on FVIII has also been used to aid recombinant expression of FVIII in CHO cells (Kaufman et al. 1989, Mol Cell Biol).

Until today the standard treatment of Hemophilia A and VWD involves frequent intravenous infusions of preparations of FVIII and VWF concentrates or of concentrates comprising a complex of FVIII and VWF derived from the plasmas of human donors or in case of FVIII that of pharmaceutical preparations based on recombinant FVIII. While these replacement therapies are generally effective, e.g. in severe hemophilia A patients undergoing prophylactic treatment FVIII has to be administered intravenously (i.v.) about 3 times per week due to the short plasma half life of FVIII of about 12 hours. Already above levels of 1% of the FVIII activity in non-hemophiliacs, e.g. by a raise of FVIII levels by 0.01 U/ml, severe hemophilia A is turned into moderate hemophilia A. In prophylactic therapy dosing regimes are designed such that the trough levels of FVIII activity do not fall below levels of 2-3% of the FVIII activity in non-hemophiliacs. Each i.v. administration is cumbersome, associated with pain and entails the risk of an infection especially as this is mostly done in home treatment by the patients themselves or by the parents of children being diagnosed for hemophilia A. In addition the frequent i.v. injections inevitably result in scar formation, interfering with future infusions. As prophylactic treatment in severe hemophilia is started early in life, with children often being less than 2 years old, it is even more difficult to inject FVIII 3 times per week into the veins of such small patients. For a limited period, implantation of port systems may offer an alternative. Despite the fact that repeated infections may occur and ports can cause inconvenience during physical exercise, they are nevertheless typically considered as favorable as compared to intravenous injections.

The in vivo half-life of human VWF in the human circulation is approximately 12 to 20 hours. In prophylactic treatment of VWD e.g. of type 3 it would also be highly desirable to find ways to prolong the functional half-life of VWF.

Another approach to enhance the functional half-life of VWF is by PEGylation (WO 2006/071801) which pegylated VWF by having an increased half-life would indirectly also enhance the half-life of FVIII present in plasma.

However the chemical conjugation of PEG or other molecules to therapeutic proteins always entails the risk, that the specific activity is reduced due to shielding of important interaction sites with other proteins, chemical conjugation adds an additional step in the manufacture of such proteins decreasing final yields and making manufacture more expensive. Also the long term effects on human health are not known as currently known PEGylated therapeutic proteins do not need to be administrated lifelong as it would be the case for a VWF to be administered in prophylaxis of von Willebrand disease or in for a FVIII to be administered in hemophilia A.

It would thus be highly desirable to obtain a long-lived VWF which is not chemically modified.

In the prior art fusions of coagulation factors to albumin (WO 01/79271), alpha-fetoprotein (WO 2005/024044) and immunoglobulin (WO 2004/101740) as half-life enhancing polypeptides have been described. These were taught to be attached to the carboxy- or the amino-terminus or to both termini of the respective therapeutic protein moiety, occasionally linked by peptidic linkers, preferably by linkers consisting of glycine and serine.

Ballance et al. (WO 01/79271) described N- or C-terminal fusion polypeptides of a multitude of different therapeutic polypeptides fused to human serum albumin. Long lists of potential fusion partners are described without disclosing experimental data for almost any of these polypeptides whether or not the respective albumin fusion proteins actually retain biological activity and have improved properties. Among said list of therapeutic polypeptides also FVIII and VWF are mentioned.

A C-terminal fusion would not have been seriously considered by the man skilled in the art as the C2 domain of FVIII at the very C-terminal part of FVIII between amino acid 2303 and 2332 of FVIII comprises a platelet membrane binding site which is essential for FVIII function. This is why there are many amino acid mutations known in this region which lead to hemophilia A. It was thus surprising that a relatively large heterologous polypeptide like albumin can be fused to the C-terminal part of FVIII without preventing FVIII function by preventing platelet binding. In addition, the C2 domain also contains a binding site for VWF. This site together with the amino acid sequence 1649-1689 is responsible for the high affinity binding of FVIII to VWF. Therefore, a man skilled in the art would also not have expected that a FVIII with a C-terminal albumin fusion would retain its binding to VWF.

It was surprisingly found that in contrast to the prediction by Ballance et al. an albumin fusion to the N-terminus of FVIII was not secreted into the culture medium. Therefore and because of the reasons detailed above it was now even more surprisingly found that a FVIII fused at its C-terminal part to albumin is secreted into the culture medium and retains its biological function including binding to membranes of activated platelets and to VWF.

It was also surprising to find that the modified FVIII of the invention shows an increase of in vivo recovery by about 20% compared to the wild type FVIII.

A man skilled in the art would also not have considered fusing human albumin to the N- or the C-terminus of VWF. In an N-terminal fusion the albumin part would be cleaved off during propeptide processing. Or if the propeptide would be omitted the multimerization would not take place. As detailed above the C-terminus of VWF is essential for the initial dimerization and secretion as shown by Schneppenheim et al. (Schneppenheim R. et al. 1996. Defective dimerization of VWF subunits due to a Cys to Arg mutation in VWD type IID. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 93:3581-3586; Schneppenheim R. et al. 2001. Expression and characterization of VWF dimerization defects in different types of VWD. Blood 97:2059-2066.), Baronciani et al. (Baronciani L. et al. 2000. Molecular characterization of a multiethnic group of 21 patients with VWD type 3. Thromb. Haemost 84:536-540), Enayat et al. (Enayat M S et al. 2001. Aberrant dimerization of VWF as the result of mutations in the carboxy-terminal region: identification of 3 mutations in members of 3 different families with type 2A (phenotype IID) VWD. Blood 98:674-680) and Tjernberg et al. 2006. Homozygous C2362F VWF induces intracellular retention of mutant VWF resulting in autosomal recessive severe VWD. Br J Haematol. 133:409-418). Therefore the man skilled in the art would not consider fusing a large protein like human albumin to the C- or N-terminus of VWF as he would expect that normal dimerization or multimerization of VWF would be impaired. As the higher multimers of VWF are the ones most active in primary hemostasis the man skilled in the art would have looked for other ways to prolong the functional half-life of VWF.

It was now surprisingly found that fusing heterologous polypeptides such as albumin to the C-terminal part of VWF, not only permits expression and secretion of VWF chimeric proteins from mammalian cells but also results in modified VWF molecules that retain significant VWF activity and form high molecular weight multimers. In addition, such modified VWF molecules exhibit prolonged in vivo half-life and/or improved in vivo recovery.

DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

It is an objective of this invention to provide a modified FVIII or a modified VWF as well as complexes of modified FVIII with non-modified VWF, complexes of non-modified FVIII with modified VWF and also complexes of modified FVIII with modified VWF with enhanced in vivo half-life.

The term “modified FVIII” or “modified VWF” in the sense of the invention means FVIII or VWF polypeptides which are fused to half-life enhancing polypeptides, encompassing also natural alleles, variants, deletions and insertions of FVIII or VWF.

It is another objective of this invention to provide a modified FVIII or a modified VWF as well as complexes of modified FVIII with non-modified VWF, complexes of non-modified FVIII with modified VWF and also complexes of modified FVIII with modified VWF with improved in vivo recovery.

Another objective of the invention is that this modified FVIII or modified VWF as well as complexes of modified FVIII with non-modified VWF, non-modified FVIII with modified VWF and also complexes of modified FVIII with modified VWF can be expressed by mammalian cells and retain their respective biological activities.

In summary, surprisingly the modified FVIII or modified VWF as well as complexes of modified FVIII with non-modified VWF, complexes of non-modified FVIII with modified VWF and also complexes of modified FVIII with modified VWF of the invention have retained biological activity, increased in vivo half-life and in vivo recovery.

An additional potential benefit of those embodiments of the present invention in which the FVIII is modified and in which the A2 domain remains only non covalently attached to the A3 domain after activation is that only the half-life of the non-activated form of FVIII is increased, whereas the half-life of the activated form of FVIII remains essentially the same, which might result in a decreased risk of thrombogenicity as compared to FVIII variants which lead to a stabilization of the activated form of FVIII.

The modified FVIII or modified VWF as well as complexes of modified FVIII with non-modified VWF, complexes of non-modified FVIII with modified VWF and also complexes of modified FVIII with modified VWF molecules of the invention can be generated by fusing a half-life enhancing protein (HLEP) moiety to the C-terminal part of FVIII or to the C-terminal part of VWF.

HLEPs in the sense of the present invention are selected from a group consisting of members of the albumin family, which includes albumin, afamin, alpha-fetoprotein and the vitamin D binding protein, as well as portions of an immunoglobulin constant region and polypeptides capable of binding under physiological conditions to members of the albumin family as well as to portions of an immunoglobulin constant region. The most preferred HLEP is human albumin.

The present invention therefore relates to a modified FVIII or modified VWF as well as complexes of modified FVIII with non-modified VWF, complexes of non-modified FVIII with modified VWF and also complexes of modified FVIII with modified VWF having at the C-terminal part of the modified FVIII and/or VWF a fusion to a HLEP, characterized in that the modified FVIII or modified VWF as well as the complex of modified FVIII with non-modified VWF, the complex of non-modified FVIII with modified VWF or the complex of modified FVIII with modified VWF has prolonged functional half-life compared to the functional half-life of the wild-type FVIII or wild-type VWF or the complex of wild-type VWF and wild-type FVIII.

The present invention also relates to C-terminal fusions to more than one HLEP wherein the HLEP, which is fused several times, may be the same HLEP or may be a combination of different HLEPs.

The present invention also relates to a modified FVIII having at the C-terminal part a fusion to a HLEP, characterized in that the modified FVIII or modified VWF or the complex of modified FVIII with non-modified VWF, the complex of non-modified FVIII with modified VWF or the complex of modified FVIII with modified VWF has improved in vivo recovery compared to the in vivo recovery of the wild-type FVIII or wild-type VWF or the complex of wild-type VWF and wild-type FVIII.

Another embodiment of the invention are modified FVIII polypeptides having at the C-terminal part a fusion to a HLEP, characterized in that the modified FVIII is secreted into a fermentation medium at a higher yield as a wild-type FVIII.

Another aspect of the invention are polynucleotides or combinations of polynucleotides encoding the modified FVIII and/or the modified VWF.

The invention further relates to plasmids or vectors comprising a polynucleotide described herein, to host cells comprising a polynucleotide or a plasmid or vector described herein.

Another aspect of the invention is a method of producing a modified FVIII or a modified VWF or a complex of modified FVIII with non-modified VWF, a complex of non-modified FVIII with modified VWF or a complex of modified FVIII with modified VWF, comprising:

-   -   (a) culturing host cells of the invention under conditions such         that the modified coagulation factor is expressed; and     -   (b) optionally recovering the modified coagulation factor from         the host cells or from the culture medium.

The invention further pertains to pharmaceutical compositions comprising a modified FVIII or a modified VWF or a complex of modified FVIII with non-modified VWF or a complex of non-modified FVIII with modified VWF or a complex of modified FVIII with modified VWF, a polynucleotide, or a plasmid or vector described herein.

Yet another aspect of the invention is the use of a modified FVIII or a modified VWF or a complex of modified FVIII with non-modified VWF or a complex of non-modified FVIII with modified VWF or a complex of modified FVIII with modified VWF, one or more polynucleotides, or one or more plasmids or vectors, or of host cells according to this invention for the manufacture of a medicament for the treatment or prevention of a blood coagulation disorder.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

The invention pertains to a complex comprising FVIII and von VWF or one of its individual polypeptidic components wherein at least one polypeptidic component of said complex is fused at the C-terminal part of its primary translation product to the N-terminal part of a half-life enhancing polypeptide (HLEP)

The invention also pertains to a modified FVIII or a modified VWF or a complex comprising modified FVIII and non-modified VWF or a complex comprising non-modified FVIII and modified VWF or a complex comprising modified FVIII and modified VWF wherein the modified FVIII is fused at a C-terminal part of the primary translation polypeptide of FVIII to the N-terminal part of a HLEP or the modified VWF is fused at a C-terminal part of the primary translation polypeptide of VWF to the N-terminal part acid of a HLEP.

In preferred embodiments the invention pertains to a modified FVIII or a modified VWF or a complex comprising modified FVIII and non-modified VWF or a complex comprising non-modified FVIII and modified VWF or a complex comprising modified FVIII and modified VWF, wherein

-   -   a. the modified FVIII has a prolonged functional half-life         compared to the functional half-life of wild-type FVIII or     -   b. the modified VWF has a prolonged functional half-life         compared to the functional half-life of wild-type VWF or     -   c. the complex comprising modified FVIII and non-modified VWF         has a prolonged functional half-life compared to the functional         half-life of the corresponding complex comprising wild-type         FVIII and wild-type VWF or     -   d. the complex comprising non-modified FVIII and modified VWF         has a prolonged functional half-life compared to the functional         half-life of the corresponding complex comprising wild-type         FVIII and wild-type VWF or     -   e. the complex of modified FVIII with modified VWF has a         prolonged functional half-life compared to the functional         half-life of the corresponding complex comprising wild-type         FVIII and wild-type VWF.

A preferred embodiment of the invention is a modified polypeptide or a complex comprising said modified polypeptide or a complex comprising said modified polypeptides as described above, wherein the modified polypeptide has a functional half-life increased by at least 25% as compared to the functional half-life of the corresponding wild-type polypeptide or the complex comprising said modified polypeptide or a complex comprising said modified polypeptides has a functional half-life increased by at least 25% as compared to the corresponding complex of wild-type FVIII and wild-type VWF.

Another embodiment of the invention is a modified FVIII or a modified VWF or a complex comprising modified FVIII and non-modified VWF or a complex comprising non-modified FVIII and modified VWF or a complex comprising modified FVIII and modified VWF, wherein

-   -   a. the modified FVIII has a prolonged antigen half-life compared         to the antigen half-life of wild-type FVIII or     -   b. the modified VWF has a prolonged antigen half-life compared         to the antigen half-life of wild-type VWF or     -   c. the complex comprising modified FVIII and non-modified VWF         has a prolonged antigen half-life compared to the antigen         half-life of the corresponding complex comprising wild-type         FVIII and wild-type VWF or     -   d. the complex comprising non-modified FVIII and modified VWF         has a prolonged antigen half-life compared to the antigen         half-life of the corresponding complex of wild-type FVIII and         wild-type VWF or     -   e. the complex comprising modified FVIII and modified VWF has a         prolonged antigen half-life compared to the antigen half-life of         the corresponding complex of wild-type FVIII and wild-type VWF.

A preferred embodiment of the invention is a modified polypeptide or a complex comprising said modified polypeptide or a complex comprising said modified polypeptides as described above, wherein the modified polypeptide has an antigen half-life increased by at least 25% as compared to the antigen half-life of the corresponding wild-type polypeptide or the complex comprising said modified polypeptide or a complex comprising said modified polypeptides has an antigen half-life increased by at least 25% as compared to the corresponding complex of wild-type FVIII and wild-type VWF.

Still another embodiment of the invention is a modified FVIII or a modified VWF or a complex comprising modified FVIII and non-modified VWF or a complex comprising non-modified FVIII and modified VWF or a complex comprising modified FVIII and modified VWF, wherein

-   -   a. the modified FVIII has an increased in vivo recovery compared         to the in vivo recovery of wild-type FVIII or     -   b. the modified VWF has an increased in vivo recovery compared         to the in vivo recovery of wild-type VWF or     -   c. the complex comprising modified FVIII and non-modified VWF         has an increased in vivo recovery compared to the in vivo         recovery of the corresponding complex comprising wild-type FVIII         and wild-type VWF or     -   d. the complex comprising non-modified FVIII and modified VWF         has an increased in vivo recovery compared to the in vivo         recovery of the corresponding complex comprising wild-type FVIII         and wild-type VWF or     -   e. the complex comprising modified FVIII and modified VWF has an         increased in vivo recovery compared to the in vivo recovery of         the corresponding complex comprising wild-type FVIII and         wild-type VWF.

Another preferred embodiment of the invention is a modified polypeptide or a complex comprising said modified polypeptide or a complex comprising said modified polypeptides as described above, wherein the modified polypeptide has an in vivo recovery increased by at least 10% as compared to the in vivo recovery of the corresponding wild-type polypeptide or the complex comprising said modified polypeptide or a complex comprising said modified polypeptides has an in vivo recovery increased by at least 10% as compared to the corresponding complex of wild-type FVIII and wild-type VWF.

Another preferred embodiment of the invention is

-   -   a) a modified polypeptide or a complex comprising said modified         polypeptide or a complex comprising said modified polypeptides         as described above, wherein at least one polypeptidic component         of said complex is fused at the C-terminal amino acid of its         primary translation product to the N-terminal part of a HLEP or     -   b) a modified polypeptide or a complex comprising said modified         polypeptide or a complex comprising said modified polypeptides         as described above, wherein at least one polypeptidic component         of said complex is fused at the C-terminal part of its primary         translation product to the N-terminal amino acid of a HLEP or     -   c) a modified polypeptide or a complex comprising said modified         polypeptide or a complex comprising said modified polypeptides         as described above, wherein at least one polypeptidic component         of said complex is fused at the C-terminal amino acid of its         primary translation product to the N-terminal amino acid of a         HLEP.

Another preferred embodiment of the invention is a modified polypeptide or a complex comprising said modified polypeptide or a complex comprising said modified polypeptides as described above, wherein the modified polypeptide has at least 10% of the biological activity of wild-type polypeptide or the complex comprising the modified polypeptide or a complex comprising said modified polypeptides has at least 10% of the biological activity of the corresponding complex of wild-type FVIII and wild-type VWF.

Also comprised in the present invention is a method of preparing a modified FVIII or a modified VWF having increased functional half-life, comprising fusing the N-terminal part of a half-life-enhancing polypeptide to a C-terminal part of the primary translation polypeptide of the FVIII or to a C-terminal part of the primary translation polypeptide of the VWF as well as a method of preparing a complex comprising modified FVIII and non-modified VWF or a complex comprising non-modified FVIII and modified VWF or a complex comprising modified FVIII and modified VWF by mixing a modified FVIII prepared by the method described above with wild-type VWF or by mixing wild-type FVIII with a modified VWF prepared by the method described above or by mixing a modified FVIII and a modified VWF prepared by the method described above.

Also encompassed in the invention is the use of

-   -   a. a modified FVIII as prepared by the method described above         and wild-type VWF or     -   b. a wild-type FVIII and a modified VWF prepared by the method         described above or     -   c. a modified FVIII a as prepared by the method described above         and a modified VWF as prepared by the method described above         for the manufacture of a combined pharmaceutical preparation for         simultaneous, separate or sequential use in the therapy of         bleeding disorders, preferentially in the therapy of hemophilia         A and/or von Willebrand disease.

The “functional half-life” according to the present invention is the half-life of the biological activity of the modified FVIII or the modified VWF or a complex of modified FVIII with non-modified VWF or a complex of the non-modified FVIII with modified VWF or a complex of modified FVIII with modified VWF once it has been administered to a mammal and can be measured in vitro in blood samples taken at different time intervals from said mammal after the modified FVIII or the modified VWF or the complex of modified FVIII with non-modified VWF or the complex of non-modified FVIII with modified VWF or the complex of modified FVIII with modified VWF has been administered.

The phrases “fusing” or “fused” refer to the addition of amino acids to the C-terminal part of FVIII and/or to the C-terminal part of VWF. When referring herein to a “fusion to the C-terminal amino acid of FVIII” or to a “fusion to the C-terminal amino acid of VWF” this means a fusion exactly to the C-terminal amino acid of FVIII at amino acid 2332 of the mature wild-type FVIII cDNA sequence or exactly to the C-terminal amino acid of VWF at amino acid 2050 of wild-type mature VWF. Mature FVIII or mature VWF meaning the respective polypeptide after cleavage of the propeptide. However the invention also encompasses a “fusion to the C-terminal part of FVIII” or a “fusion to the C-terminal part of VWF” in the sense of this invention may also include a fusion to a FVIII and/or VWF molecule respectively in which one or more amino acid position up to n amino acids from the C-terminal amino acid of FVIII and/or of VWF are deleted. The figure n is an integer that should not be greater than 5%, preferably not greater than 1% of the total number of amino acids of the FVIII and/or VWF. Usually, n is 20, preferably 15, more preferably 10, still more preferably 5 or less (e.g. 1, 2, 3, 4 or 5).

In one embodiment, the modified FVIII has the following structure: N-FVIII-C-L1-H,  [formula 1]

wherein

N is an N-terminal part of FVIII,

L1 is a chemical bond or a linker sequence

H is a HLEP, and

C is a C-terminal part of FVIII

In another embodiment the modified VWF has the following structure: N-VWF-C-L1-H,  [formula 2]

wherein

N is an N-terminal part of VWF,

L1 is a chemical bond or a linker sequence

H is a HLEP, and

C is a C-terminal part of VWF

L1 may be a chemical bond or a linker sequence consisting of one or more amino acids, e.g. of 1 to 20, 1 to 15, 1 to 10, 1 to 5 or 1 to 3 (e.g. 1, 2 or 3) amino acids and which may be equal or different from each other. Usually, the linker sequences are not present at the corresponding position in the wild-type coagulation factor. Examples of suitable amino acids present in L1 include Gly and Ser.

Preferred HLEP sequences are described infra. Likewise encompassed by the invention are fusions to the exact “N-terminal amino acid” of the respective HLEP, or fusions to the “N-terminal part” of the respective HLEP, which includes N-terminal deletions of one or more amino acids of the HLEP.

The modified FVIII or the modified VWF or the complex of the modified FVIII with the non-modified VWF, the complex of the non-modified FVIII with the modified VWF or the complex of the modified FVIII with modified VWF of the invention may comprise more than one HLEP sequence, e.g. two or three HLEP sequences. These multiple HLEP sequences may be fused to the C-terminal part of FVIII and/or to the C-terminal part of VWF in tandem, e.g. as successive repeats.

FVIII may be processed proteolytically at various stages. For example, as mentioned supra, during its secretion into plasma single chain FVIII is cleaved intracellularly at the B-A3 boundary and at different sites within the B-domain. The heavy chain is bound via a metal ion to the light chain having the domain structure A3-C1-C2. FVIII is activated via proteolytic cleavage at amino acids Arg372 and Arg740 within the heavy chain and at Arg1689 in the light chain generating the activated FVIII heterotrimer consisting of the A1 domain, the A2 domain, and the light chain (A3-C1-C2), a 73 kDa fragment. Thus the active form of FVIII (FVIIIa) consists of an A1-subunit associated through the divalent metal ion linkage to a thrombin-cleaved A3-C1-C2 light chain and a free A2 subunit relatively loosely associated with the A1 and the A3 domain.

Accordingly, the present invention encompasses also modified FVIII that is not present as a single chain polypeptide but consists of several polypeptides (e.g. one or two or three) that are associated with each other via non-covalent linkages.

Preferably N-FVIII-C comprises the full length sequence of FVIII. Also encompassed are N-terminal, C-terminal or internal deletions of FVIII as long as the biological activity of FVIII is retained. The biological activity is retained in the sense of the invention if the FVIII with deletions retains at least 10%, preferably at least 25%, more preferably at least 50%, most preferably at least 75% of the biological activity of wild-type FVIII. The biological activity of FVIII can be determined by the artisan as described below.

A suitable test to determine the biological activity of FVIII is for example the one stage or the two stage coagulation assay (Rizza et al. 1982. Coagulation assay of FVIII:C and FIXa in Bloom ed. The Hemophilias. N Y Churchchill Livingston 1992) or the chromogenic substrate FVIII:C assay (S. Rosen, 1984. Scand J Haematol 33: 139-145, suppl.). The content of these references is incorporated herein by reference.

The cDNA sequence and the amino acid sequence of the mature wild-type form of human blood coagulation FVIII are shown in SEQ ID NO:14 and SEQ ID NO:15, respectively. The reference to an amino acid position of a specific sequence means the position of said amino acid in the FVIII wild-type protein and does not exclude the presence of mutations, e.g. deletions, insertions and/or substitutions at other positions in the sequence referred to. For example, a mutation in “Glu2004” referring to SEQ ID NO:15 does not exclude that in the modified homologue one or more amino acids at positions 1 through 2332 of SEQ ID NO:15 are missing.

The terms “blood coagulation Factor VIII”, “Factor VIII” and “FVIII” are used interchangeably herein. “Blood coagulation Factor VIII” includes wild-type blood coagulation FVIII as well as derivatives of wild-type blood coagulation FVIII having the procoagulant activity of wild-type blood coagulation FVIII. Derivatives may have deletions, insertions and/or additions compared with the amino acid sequence of wild-type FVIII. The term FVIII includes proteolytically processed forms of FVIII, e.g. the form before activation, comprising heavy chain and light chain.

The term “FVIII” includes any FVIII variants or mutants having at least 25%, more preferably at least 50%, most preferably at least 75% of the biological activity of wild-type factor VIII.

As non-limiting examples, FVIII molecules include FVIII mutants preventing or reducing APC cleavage (Amano 1998. Thromb. Haemost. 79:557-563), FVIII mutants further stabilizing the A2 domain (WO 97/40145), FVIII mutants resulting in increased expression (Swaroop et al. 1997. JBC 272:24121-24124), FVIII mutants reducing its immunogenicity (Lollar 1999. Thromb. Haemost. 82:505-508), FVIII reconstituted from differently expressed heavy and light chains (Oh et al. 1999. Exp. Mol. Med. 31:95-100), FVIII mutants reducing binding to receptors leading to catabolism of FVIII like HSPG (heparan sulfate proteoglycans) and/or LRP (low density lipoprotein receptor related protein) (Ananyeva et al. 2001. TCM, 11:251-257), disulfide bond-stabilized FVIII variants (Gale et al., 2006. J. Thromb. Hemost. 4:1315-1322), FVIII mutants with improved secretion properties (Miao et al., 2004. Blood 103:3412-3419), FVIII mutants with increased cofactor specific activity (Wakabayashi et al., 2005. Biochemistry 44:10298-304), FVIII mutants with improved biosynthesis and secretion, reduced ER chaperone interaction, improved ER-Golgi transport, increased activation or resistance to inactivation and improved half-life (summarized by Pipe 2004. Sem. Thromb. Hemost. 30:227-237). All of these FVIII mutants and variants are incorporated herein by reference in their entirety.

VWF may be processed proteolytically at various stages. For example, as mentioned supra, the protease ADAMTS13 cleaves VWF within the A2 domain of VWF. Accordingly, the present invention encompasses also modified VWF which has been cleaved proteolytically e.g. by ADAMTS13. Such cleavage would result in multimeric chains of VWF which comprise at their ends at least one or at most two monomers of VWF which have been cleaved by ADAMTS 13.

Preferably N-VWF-C comprises the full length sequence of VWF. Also encompassed are N-terminal, C-terminal or internal deletions of VWF as long as the biological activity of VWF is retained. The biological activity is retained in the sense of the invention if the VWF with deletions retains at least 10%, preferably at least 25%, more preferably at least 50%, most preferably at least 75% of the biological activity of wild-type VWF. The biological activity of wild-type VWF can be determined by the artisan using methods for ristocetin co-factor activity (Federici A B et al. 2004. Haematologica 89:77-85), binding of VWF to GP Ibα of the platelet glycoprotein complex Ib-V-IX (Sucker et al. 2006. Clin Appl Thromb Hemost. 12:305-310), or a collagen binding assay (Kallas & Talpsep. 2001. Annals of Hematology 80:466-471).

“FVIII” and/or “VWF” within the above definition also include natural allelic variations that may exist and occur from one individual to another. “FVIII” and/or “VWF” within the above definition further includes variants of FVIII and or VWF. Such variants differ in one or more amino acid residues from the wild-type sequence. Examples of such differences may include as conservative amino acid substitutions, i.e. substitutions within groups of amino acids with similar characteristics, e.g. (1) small amino acids, (2) acidic amino acids, (3) polar amino acids, (4) basic amino acids, (5) hydrophobic amino acids, and (6) aromatic amino acids. Examples of such conservative substitutions are shown in the following table.

TABLE 1 (1) Alanine Glycine (2) Aspartic acid Glutamic acid (3) Asparagine Glutamine Serine Threonine (4) Arginine Histidine Lysine (5) Isoleucine Leucine Methionine Valine (6) Phenylalanine Tyrosine Tryptophane

One or more HLEPs may fused to the C-terminal part of FVIII preferably as not to interfere with the binding capabilities of FVIII for example to VWF, platelets or FIX.

One or more HLEPs may be fused to the C-terminal part of VWF preferably as not to interfere with the binding capabilities of VWF for example to FVIII, platelets, heparin or collagen.

Once FVIII is endogenously activated during coagulation in vivo, it may be no longer desirable to maintain the increased functional half-life of the now activated FVIII as this might lead to thrombotic complications what is already the case for a wild-type activated coagulation factor as FVIIa (Aledort 2004. J Thromb Haemost 2:1700-1708) and what may be more relevant if the activated factor would have an increased functional half-life. It is therefore another objective of the present invention to provide long-lived FVIII molecules, which after endogenous activation in vivo or after availability of a cofactor do have a functional half-life comparable to that of unmodified FVIII. This can by way of non-limiting example be achieved by introducing a cleavage site for example for a coagulation factor between the C-terminal part of FVIII and the HLEP. With such FVIII-HLEP connecting sequences the activation of the FVIII chimeric protein of the invention will lead to a concomitant complete separation of FVIIIa from the HLEP moiety. Accordingly, in one embodiment, the functional half-life of the endogenously activated modified FVIII is substantially the same as that of the activated wild-type FVIII (e.g. ±15%, preferably ±10%).

In yet another embodiment of the invention, however, one or more of the proteolytical cleavage sites, preferably the thrombin cleavage sites at Arg740 and/or Arg372, are mutated or deleted in order to prevent cleavage and result in an insertion protein which displays improved properties like enhanced functional half-life even as an activated molecule.

In another embodiment of the invention the FVIII proteins of the invention may be expressed as two separate chains (see infra).

The modified FVIII according to this invention may be a single chain polypeptide, or it may be composed of two or three polypeptide chains that are associated via non-covalent linkages, due to proteolytic processing.

In another embodiment of the invention, the amino acids at or near the PACE/Furin cleavage site (Arg1648) are mutated or deleted in order to prevent cleavage by PACE/Furin. This is thought to result in a one-chain FVIII/HLEP fusion molecule with improved half-life.

In one embodiment of the invention, the modified FVIII of the invention exhibits an increased functional half-life compared to the corresponding FVIII form containing no integrated HLEP and/or to the wild-type form FVIII. The functional half-life e.g. can be determined in vivo in animal models of hemophilia A, like FVIII knockout mice, in which one would expect a longer lasting hemostatic effect as compared to wild-type FVIII. The hemostatic effect could be tested for example by determining time to arrest of bleeding after a tail clip.

The functional half-life in one embodiment of the invention is the half-life of the biological activity of the FVIII once it has been administered to a mammal and is measured in vitro. The functional half-life of the modified FVIII according to the invention is greater than that of the FVIII lacking the modification as tested in the same species. The functional half-life is preferably increased by at least 10%, preferably 25%, more preferably by at least 50%, and even more preferably by at least 100% compared to the wild-type form of FVIII.

The functional half-life of a modified FVIII comprising a HLEP modification, can be determined by administering the respective modified FVIII (and in comparison wild-type FVIII) to rats, rabbits or other experimental animal species intravenously or subcutaneously and following the elimination of the biological activity of said modified or respectively non-modified coagulation factor in blood samples drawn at appropriate intervals after application. Suitable test methods are the activity tests described herein.

The functional half-life according to another embodiment of the invention is the half-life of the biological function of the VWF once it has been administered to a mammal and is measured in vitro. The functional half-life of the modified VWF according to the invention is greater than that of the VWF lacking the modification as tested in the same species. The functional half-life is increased by at least 10%, preferably increased by at least 25%, more preferably by at least 50%, and even more preferably by at least 100% compared to the VWF lacking the modification and/or to the wild-type form of VWF.

The functional half-life of a modified VWF comprising a HLEP modification, can be determined by administering the respective modified VWF (and in comparison that of the non-modified VWF) to rats, rabbits or other experimental animal species intravenously or subcutaneously and following the elimination of the biological activity of said modified or respectively non-modified VWF in blood samples drawn at appropriate intervals after application. Suitable test methods are the activity tests described herein.

As a surrogate marker for the half-life of biological activity also the levels of antigen of the modified or respectively wild-type FVIII or the levels of antigen of the modified or respectively wild-type VWF can be measured. Thus also encompassed by the invention are modified FVIII and/or VWF molecules having at the C-terminal part of FVIII and/or VWF a fusion to a HLEP, characterized in that the modified FVIII or the modified VWF or the modified VWF or the complex of modified FVIII with non-modified VWF, or the complex of the non-modified FVIII with modified VWF or the complex of modified FVIII with modified VWF has a prolonged half-life of the FVIII and/or VWF antigen compared to the half-life of the FVIII and/or VWF antigen lacking said insertion. The “half-life of the FVIII antigen” according to the present invention is the half-life of the antigen of the FVIII once it has been administered to a mammal and is measured in vitro. The “half-life of the VWF antigen” according to the present invention is the half-life of the antigen of the VWF once it has been administered to a mammal and is measured in vitro. Antigen test methods based on specific antibodies in an enzyme immunoassay format as known to the artisan and commercially available (e.g. Dade Behring, Instrumentation Laboratory, Abbott Laboratories, Diagnostica Stago). Functional and antigen half-lives can be calculated using the time points of the beta phase of elimination according to the formula t_(1/2)=In2/k, whereas k is the slope of the regression line.

In another embodiment, the functional half-life of the endogenously activated modified FVIII is prolonged compared to that of the activated wild-type FVIII. The increase may be more than 15%, for example at least 20% or at least 50%. Again, such functional half-life values can be measured and calculated as described for functional half-lives supra. Increased half-lives of the endogenously activated modified FVIII molecules may be beneficial in situations were only very low levels of FVIII are available that therefore are not thrombogenic. Such situations may occur e.g. upon gene therapy treatment where often only low expression rates can be achieved. Therefore, such stabilized FVIII molecules might be beneficial in e.g. gene therapy despite a thrombogenic risk connected to such FVIII molecules if administered as proteins in high or physiologic doses.

In another embodiment of the invention, the modified FVIII of the invention exhibits an improved in vivo recovery compared to the wild-type FVIII and the modified VWF of the invention exhibits an improved in vivo recovery compared to the wild-type VWF. The in vivo recovery can be determined in vivo for example in normal animals or in animal models of hemophilia A, like FVIII knockout mice, or in models of VWD, like VWF knockout mice in which one would expect an increased percentage of the modified FVIII or VWF of the invention be found by antigen or activity assays in the circulation shortly (5 to 10 min.) after i.v. administration compared to the corresponding wild-type FVIII or wild-type VWF.

The in vivo recovery is preferably increased by at least 10%, more preferably by at least 20%, and even more preferably by at least 40% compared to wild-type form FVIII or to wild-type VWF.

In yet another embodiment of the invention immunoglobulin constant regions or portions thereof are used as HLEPs. Preferably the Fc region comprised of a CH2 and CH3 domain and a hinge region of an IgG, more preferably of an IgG1 or fragments or variants thereof are used, variants including mutations which enhance binding to the neonatal Fc receptor (FcRn).

It is another objective of the present invention to provide long-lived FVIII molecules, which after proteolytic processing in vivo do have a functional half-life comparable to that of an unmodified FVIII. This can be achieved by maintaining certain cleavage sites in the modified FVIII leading to a proteolytic cleavage for example when in contact with activated coagulation factors, which separates the FVIII from the HLEP. Accordingly, in one embodiment, the functional half-life of the proteolytically processed modified FVIII is substantially the same as that of the non-modified VWF lacking the modification, and/or it is substantially the same as that of the wild-type VWF (e.g. ±15%, preferably ±10%).

Still another embodiment of the invention are modified FVIII polypeptides which are fused to a HLEP for example albumin at the C-terminal part of the FVIII molecule which do have reduced binding to VWF or do not bind VWF at all.

It is another objective of the present invention to provide long-lived VWF molecules, which after proteolytic processing in vivo do have functional properties comparable to that of an unmodified VWF. This can be achieved by maintaining or inserting certain cleavage sites in the modified VWF (see infra) leading to a proteolytic cleavage for example when in contact with activated coagulation factors, which separates the VWF from the HLEP. Accordingly, in one embodiment, the functional half-life of the proteolytically processed modified VWF is substantially the same as that of the non-modified VWF lacking the modification, and/or it is substantially the same as that of the wild-type VWF (e.g. ±15%, preferably ±10%).

Another preferred embodiment of the invention is a coexpression of wild-type VWF and a modified VWF according to the invention resulting in VWF multimers comprising non-modified as well as modified VWF monomers.

Linker Sequences

According to this invention, the therapeutic polypeptide moiety may be coupled to the HLEP moiety by a peptide linker. The linker should be non-immunogenic and may be a non-cleavable or cleavable linker.

Non-cleavable linkers may be comprised of alternating glycine and serine residues as exemplified in WO2007/090584.

In another embodiment of the invention the peptidic linker between the FVIII and/or the VWF moiety and the albumin moiety consists of peptide sequences, which serve as natural interdomain linkers in human proteins. Preferably such peptide sequences in their natural environment are located close to the protein surface and are accessible to the immune system so that one can assume a natural tolerance against this sequence. Examples are given in WO2007/090584.

Cleavable linkers should be flexible enough to allow cleavage by proteases. In a preferred embodiment the cleavage of the linker proceeds comparably fast as the activation of FVIII within the fusion protein, if the fusion protein is a modified FVIII.

The cleavable linker preferably comprises a sequence derived from

a) the therapeutic polypeptide to be administered itself if it contains proteolytic cleavage sites that are proteolytically cleaved during activation of the therapeutic polypeptide,

b) a substrate polypeptide cleaved by a protease which is activated or formed by the involvement of the therapeutic polypeptide.

c) a polypeptide involved in coagulation or fibrinolysis

The linker region in a more preferred embodiment comprises a sequence of FVIII and/or VWF, which should result in a decreased risk of neoantigenic properties of the expressed fusion protein. Also in case the therapeutic protein is FVIII which needs to be proteolytically activated, the kinetics of the peptide linker cleavage will more closely reflect the coagulation-related activation kinetics of the zymogen.

In a preferred embodiment, the therapeutic polypeptide is FVIII zymogen and the HLEP is albumin. In this case the linker sequence is either derived from the sequences of the activation regions of FVIII, from the cleavage region of any substrate of FIX like FX or FVII or from the cleavage region of any substrate polypeptide that is cleaved by a protease in whose activation FIXa is involved.

In a highly preferred embodiment the linker peptide is derived from FVIII itself and comprises of sequences encompassing the thrombin cleavage sites at amino acid positions 372, 740 and 1689 of SEQ ID NO. 15, respectively. In another preferred embodiment the linker peptide is derived from FX, FIX, FVII or FXI.

The linker peptides are preferably cleavable by the proteases of the coagulation system, for example FIIa, FIXa, FXa, FXIa, FXIIa and FVIIa.

Said linker sequences can also be used in the modified VWF of the invention.

Exemplary combinations of therapeutic polypeptide, cleavable linker and HLEP include the constructs listed in WO2007/090584 (for example in table 2 and FIG. 4) and WO2007/144173 (for example in table 3a and 3b), but are not limited to these.

Half-Life Enhancing Polypeptides (HLEPs)

A “half-life enhancing polypeptide” as used herein is selected from the group consisting of albumin, a member of the albumin-family, the constant region of immunoglobulin G and fragments thereof region and polypeptides capable of binding under physiological conditions to albumin, to members of the albumin family as well as to portions of an immunoglobulin constant region. It may be a full-length half-life-enhancing protein described herein (e.g. albumin, a member of the albumin-family or the constant region of immunoglobulin G) or one or more fragments thereof that are capable of stabilizing or prolonging the therapeutic activity or the biological activity of the coagulation factor. Such fragments may be of 10 or more amino acids in length or may include at least about 15, at least about 20, at least about 25, at least about 30, at least about 50, at least about 100, or more contiguous amino acids from the HLEP sequence or may include part or all of specific domains of the respective HLEP, as long as the HLEP fragment provides a functional half-life extension of at least 25% compared to a wild-type FVIII or wild-type VWF.

The HLEP portion of the proposed coagulation factor insertion constructs of the invention may be a variant of a normal HLEP. The term “variants” includes insertions, deletions and substitutions, either conservative or non-conservative, where such changes do not substantially alter the active site, or active domain which confers the biological activities of the modified FVIII or modified VWF.

In particular, the proposed FVIII HLEP or VWF HLEP fusion constructs of the invention may include naturally occurring polymorphic variants of HLEPs and fragments of HLEPs. The HLEP may be derived from any vertebrate, especially any mammal, for example human, monkey, cow, sheep, or pig. Non-mammalian HLEPs include, but are not limited to, hen and salmon.

Albumin as HLEP

The terms, “human serum albumin” (HSA) and “human albumin” (HA) and “albumin” (ALB) are used interchangeably in this application. The terms “albumin” and “serum albumin” are broader, and encompass human serum albumin (and fragments and variants thereof) as well as albumin from other species (and fragments and variants thereof).

As used herein, “albumin” refers collectively to albumin polypeptide or amino acid sequence, or an albumin fragment or variant, having one or more functional activities (e.g., biological activities) of albumin. In particular, “albumin” refers to human albumin or fragments thereof, especially the mature form of human albumin as shown in SEQ ID NO:16 herein or albumin from other vertebrates or fragments thereof, or analogs or variants of these molecules or fragments thereof.

In particular, the proposed FVIII fusion and/or VWF fusion constructs of the invention may include naturally occurring polymorphic variants of human albumin and fragments of human albumin. Generally speaking, an albumin fragment or variant will be at least 10, preferably at least 40, most preferably more than 70 amino acids long. The albumin variant may preferentially consist of or alternatively comprise at least one whole domain of albumin or fragments of said domains, for example domains 1 (amino acids 1-194 of SEQ ID NO:16), 2 (amino acids 195-387 of SEQ ID NO: 16), 3 (amino acids 388-585 of SEQ ID NO: 16), 1+2 (1-387 of SEQ ID NO: 16), 2+3 (195-585 of SEQ ID NO: 16) or 1+3 (amino acid 1-194 of SEQ ID NO: 16+amino acids 388-585 of SEQ ID NO: 16). Each domain is itself made up of two homologous subdomains namely 1-105, 120-194, 195-291, 316-387, 388-491 and 512-585, with flexible inter-subdomain linker regions comprising residues Lys106 to Glu119, Glu292 to Val315 and Glu492 to Ala511.

The albumin portion of the proposed FVIII fusion and/or VWF fusion constructs of the invention may comprise at least one subdomain or domain of HA or conservative modifications thereof.

Afamin, Alpha-Fetoprotein and Vitamin D Binding Protein as HLEPs

Besides albumin, alpha-fetoprotein, another member of the albumin family, has been claimed to enhance the half-life of an attached therapeutic polypeptide in vivo (WO 2005/024044). The albumin family of proteins, evolutionarily related serum transport proteins, consists of albumin, alpha-fetoprotein (AFP; Beattie & Dugaiczyk 1982. Gene 20:415-422), afamin (AFM; Lichenstein et al. 1994. J. Biol. Chem. 269:18149-18154) and vitamin D binding protein (DBP; Cooke & David 1985. J. Clin. Invest. 76:2420-2424). Their genes represent a multigene cluster with structural and functional similarities mapping to the same chromosomal region in humans, mice and rat. The structural similarity of the albumin family members suggest their usability as HLEPs. It is therefore another object of the invention to use such albumin family members, fragments and variants thereof as HLEPs. The term “variants” includes insertions, deletions and substitutions, either conservative or non-conservative as long as the desired function is still present.

Albumin family members may comprise the full length of the respective protein AFP, AFM and DBP, or may include one or more fragments thereof that are capable of stabilizing or prolonging the therapeutic activity. Such fragments may be of 10 or more amino acids in length or may include about 15, 20, 25, 30, 50, or more contiguous amino acids of the respective protein sequence or may include part or all of specific domains of the respective protein, as long as the HLEP fragments provide a half-life extension of at least 25%. Albumin family members of the insertion proteins of the invention may include naturally occurring polymorphic variants of AFP, AFM and DBP.

Immunoglobulins as HLEPs

Immunoglobulin G (IgG) constant regions (Fc) are known in the art to increase the half-life of therapeutic proteins (Dumont J A et al. 2006. BioDrugs 20:151-160). The IgG constant region of the heavy chain consists of 3 domains (CH1-CH3) and a hinge region. The immunoglobulin sequence may be derived from any mammal, or from subclasses IgG1, IgG2, IgG3 or IgG4, respectively. IgG and IgG fragments without an antigen-binding domain may also be used as HLEPs. The therapeutic polypeptide portion is connected to the IgG or the IgG fragments preferably via the hinge region of the antibody or a peptidic linker, which may even be cleavable. Several patents and patent applications describe the fusion of therapeutic proteins to immunoglobulin constant regions to enhance the therapeutic protein's in vivo half-lifes. US 2004/0087778 and WO 2005/001025 describe fusion proteins of Fc domains or at least portions of immunoglobulin constant regions with biologically active peptides that increase the half-life of the peptide, which otherwise would be quickly eliminated in vivo. Fc-IFN-β fusion proteins were described that achieved enhanced biological activity, prolonged circulating half-life and greater solubility (WO 2006/000448). Fc-EPO proteins with a prolonged serum half-life and increased in vivo potency were disclosed (WO 2005/063808) as well as Fc fusions with G-CSF (WO 2003/076567), glucagon-like peptide-1 (WO 2005/000892), clotting factors (WO 2004/101740) and interleukin-10 (U.S. Pat. No. 6,403,077), all with half-life enhancing properties.

Polynucleotides

The invention further relates to a polynucleotide encoding a modified coagulation factor, preferably a modified FVIII and/or modified VWF variant as described in this application. The term “polynucleotide(s)” generally refers to any polyribonucleotide or polydeoxyribonucleotide that may be unmodified RNA or DNA or modified RNA or DNA. The polynucleotide may be single- or double-stranded DNA, single or double-stranded RNA. As used herein, the term “polynucleotide(s)” also includes DNAs or RNAs that comprise one or more modified bases and/or unusual bases, such as inosine. It will be appreciated that a variety of modifications may be made to DNA and RNA that serve many useful purposes known to those of skill in the art. The term “polynucleotide(s)” as it is employed herein embraces such chemically, enzymatically or metabolically modified forms of polynucleotides, as well as the chemical forms of DNA and RNA characteristic of viruses and cells, including, for example, simple and complex cells.

The skilled person will understand that, due to the degeneracy of the genetic code, a given polypeptide can be encoded by different polynucleotides. These “variants” are encompassed by this invention.

Preferably, the polynucleotide of the invention is an isolated polynucleotide. The term “isolated” polynucleotide refers to a polynucleotide that is substantially free from other nucleic acid sequences, such as and not limited to other chromosomal and extrachromosomal DNA and RNA. Isolated polynucleotides may be purified from a host cell. Conventional nucleic acid purification methods known to skilled artisans may be used to obtain isolated polynucleotides. The term also includes recombinant polynucleotides and chemically synthesized polynucleotides.

The invention further relates to a group of polynucleotides which together encode the modified FVIII and/or the modified VWF of the invention. A first polynucleotide in the group may encode the N-terminal part of the modified FVIII and/or the modified VWF, and a second polynucleotide may encode the C-terminal part of the modified FVIII and/or the modified VWF.

Yet another aspect of the invention is a plasmid or vector comprising a polynucleotide according to the invention. Preferably, the plasmid or vector is an expression vector. In a particular embodiment, the vector is a transfer vector for use in human gene therapy.

The invention also relates to a group of plasmids or vectors that comprise the above group of polynucleotides. A first plasmid or vector may contain said first polynucleotide, and a second plasmid or vector may contain said second polynucleotide. By way of example, and with reference to coagulation factor VIII, the coding sequences of the signal peptide, the A1 and A2 domains, the B domain sequence remainder and the HLEP may be cloned into the first expression vector and the coding sequences of A3, C1 and C2 with an appropriate signal peptide sequence may be cloned into the second expression vector. Both expression vectors are cotransfected into a suitable host cell, which will lead to the expression of the light and heavy chains of the FVIII molecule of the invention and the formation of a functional protein.

Alternatively, the coding sequence of the FVIII signal peptide, the A1 and A2 domains are cloned into the first expression vector and the coding sequences of the HLEP, FVIII A3, C1 and C2 with an appropriate signal peptide sequence are cloned into the second expression vector. Both expression vectors are cotransfected into a suitable host cell, which will lead to the expression of the light and heavy chains of the FVIII molecule of the invention and the formation of a functional protein.

Alternatively, both coding sequences are cloned into one expression vector either using two separate promoter sequences or one promoter and an internal ribosome entry site (IRES) element to direct the expression of both FVIII chains.

Still another aspect of the invention is a host cell comprising a polynucleotide, a plasmid or vector of the invention, or a group of polynucleotides or a group of plasmids or vectors as described herein.

The host cells of the invention may be employed in a method of producing a modified coagulation factor, preferably a modified FVIII molecule, which is part of this invention. The method comprises:

-   -   (a) culturing host cells of the invention under conditions such         that the desired insertion protein is expressed; and     -   (b) optionally recovering the desired insertion protein from the         host cells or from the culture medium.

It is preferred to purify the modified FVIII and/or the modified VWF of the present invention to ≧80% purity, more preferably ≧95% purity, and particularly preferred is a pharmaceutically pure state that is greater than 99.9% pure with respect to contaminating macromolecules, particularly other proteins and nucleic acids, and free of infectious and pyrogenic agents. Preferably, an isolated or purified modified FVIII and/or the modified VWF of the invention is substantially free of other, non-related polypeptides.

The various products of the invention are useful as medicaments. Accordingly, the invention relates to a pharmaceutical composition comprising a modified FVIII and/or the modified VWF as described herein, a polynucleotide of the invention, or a plasmid or vector of the invention.

The invention also concerns a method of treating an individual suffering from a blood coagulation disorder such as hemophilia A or B. The method comprises administering to said individual an efficient amount of the FVIII and/or the modified VWF or the modified VWF or the complex of modified FVIII with non-modified VWF, or the complex of the non-modified FVIII with modified VWF or the complex of modified FVIII with modified VWF as described herein. In another embodiment, the method comprises administering to the individual an efficient amount of a polynucleotide of the invention or of a plasmid or vector of the invention. Alternatively, the method may comprise administering to the individual an efficient amount of the host cells of the invention described herein.

Expression of the Proposed Mutants

The production of recombinant mutant proteins at high levels in suitable host cells requires the assembly of the above-mentioned modified cDNAs into efficient transcriptional units together with suitable regulatory elements in a recombinant expression vector that can be propagated in various expression systems according to methods known to those skilled in the art. Efficient transcriptional regulatory elements could be derived from viruses having animal cells as their natural hosts or from the chromosomal DNA of animal cells. Preferably, promoter-enhancer combinations derived from the Simian Virus 40, adenovirus, BK polyoma virus, human cytomegalovirus, or the long terminal repeat of Rous sarcoma virus, or promoter-enhancer combinations including strongly constitutively transcribed genes in animal cells like beta-actin or GRP78 can be used. In order to achieve stable high levels of mRNA transcribed from the cDNAs, the transcriptional unit should contain in its 3′-proximal part a DNA region encoding a transcriptional termination-polyadenylation sequence. Preferably, this sequence is derived from the Simian Virus 40 early transcriptional region, the rabbit beta-globin gene, or the human tissue plasminogen activator gene.

The cDNAs are then integrated into the genome of a suitable host cell line for expression of the modified FVIII and/or VWF proteins. Preferably this cell line should be an animal cell-line of vertebrate origin in order to ensure correct folding, disulfide bond formation, asparagine-linked glycosylation and other post-translational modifications as well as secretion into the cultivation medium. Examples on other post-translational modifications are tyrosine O-sulfation and proteolytic processing of the nascent polypeptide chain. Examples of cell lines that can be use are monkey COS-cells, mouse L-cells, mouse C127-cells, hamster BHK-21 cells, human embryonic kidney 293 cells, and hamster CHO-cells.

The recombinant expression vector encoding the corresponding cDNAs can be introduced into an animal cell line in several different ways. For instance, recombinant expression vectors can be created from vectors based on different animal viruses. Examples of these are vectors based on baculovirus, vaccinia virus, adenovirus, and preferably bovine papilloma virus.

The transcription units encoding the corresponding DNA's can also be introduced into animal cells together with another recombinant gene which may function as a dominant selectable marker in these cells in order to facilitate the isolation of specific cell clones which have integrated the recombinant DNA into their genome. Examples of this type of dominant selectable marker genes are Tn5 amino glycoside phosphotransferase, conferring resistance to geneticin (G418), hygromycin phosphotransferase, conferring resistance to hygromycin, and puromycin acetyl transferase, conferring resistance to puromycin. The recombinant expression vector encoding such a selectable marker can reside either on the same vector as the one encoding the cDNA of the desired protein, or it can be encoded on a separate vector which is simultaneously introduced and integrated to the genome of the host cell, frequently resulting in a tight physical linkage between the different transcription units.

Other types of selectable marker genes which can be used together with the cDNA of the desired protein are based on various transcription units encoding dihydrofolate reductase (dhfr). After introduction of this type of gene into cells lacking endogenous dhfr-activity, preferentially CHO-cells (DUKX-B11, DG-44), it will enable these to grow in media lacking nucleosides. An example of such a medium is Ham's F12 without hypoxanthine, thymidin, and glycine. These dhfr-genes can be introduced together with the FVIII cDNA transcriptional units into CHO-cells of the above type, either linked on the same vector or on different vectors, thus creating dhfr-positive cell lines producing recombinant protein.

If the above cell lines are grown in the presence of the cytotoxic dhfr-inhibitor methotrexate, new cell lines resistant to methotrexate will emerge. These cell lines may produce recombinant protein at an increased rate due to the amplified number of linked dhfr and the desired protein's transcriptional units. When propagating these cell lines in increasing concentrations of methotrexate (1-10000 nM), new cell lines can be obtained which produce the desired protein at very high rate.

The above cell lines producing the desired protein can be grown on a large scale, either in suspension culture or on various solid supports. Examples of these supports are micro carriers based on dextran or collagen matrices, or solid supports in the form of hollow fibres or various ceramic materials. When grown in cell suspension culture or on micro carriers the culture of the above cell lines can be performed either as a bath culture or as a perfusion culture with continuous production of conditioned medium over extended periods of time. Thus, according to the present invention, the above cell lines are well suited for the development of an industrial process for the production of the desired recombinant mutant proteins

Purification and Formulation

The recombinant modified FVIII and/or the recombinant modified VWF protein, which accumulates in the medium of secreting cells of the above types, can be concentrated and purified by a variety of biochemical and chromatographic methods, including methods utilizing differences in size, charge, hydrophobicity, solubility, specific affinity, etc. between the desired protein and other substances in the cell cultivation medium.

An example of such purification is the adsorption of the recombinant mutant protein to a monoclonal antibody, directed to e.g. a HLEP, preferably human albumin, or directed to the respective coagulation factor, which is immobilised on a solid support. After adsorption of the modified FVIII and/or modified VWF to the support, washing and desorption, the protein can be further purified by a variety of chromatographic techniques based on the above properties. The order of the purification steps is chosen e.g. according to capacity and selectivity of the steps, stability of the support or other aspects. Preferred purification steps e.g. are but are not limited to ion exchange chromatography steps, immune affinity chromatography steps, affinity chromatography steps, hydrophobic interaction chromatography steps, dye chromatography steps, hydroxyapatite chromatography steps, multimodal chromatography steps, and size exclusion chromatography steps.

In order to minimize the theoretical risk of virus contaminations, additional steps may be included in the process that allow effective inactivation or elimination of viruses. Such steps e.g. are heat treatment in the liquid or solid state, treatment with solvents and/or detergents, radiation in the visible or UV spectrum, gamma-radiation or nanofiltration.

The modified polynucleotides (e.g. DNA) of this invention may also be integrated into a transfer vector for use in the human gene therapy.

The various embodiments described herein may be combined with each other. The present invention will be further described in more detail in the following examples thereof. This description of specific embodiments of the invention will be made in conjunction with the appended figures.

The modified FVIII and/or modified VWF as described in this invention can be formulated into pharmaceutical preparations for therapeutic use. The purified protein may be dissolved in conventional physiologically compatible aqueous buffer solutions to which there may be added, optionally, pharmaceutical excipients to provide pharmaceutical preparations.

Such pharmaceutical carriers and excipients as well as suitable pharmaceutical formulations are well known in the art (see for example “Pharmaceutical Formulation Development of Peptides and Proteins”, Frokjaer et al., Taylor & Francis (2000) or “Handbook of Pharmaceutical Excipients”, 3^(rd) edition, Kibbe et al., Pharmaceutical Press (2000)). In particular, the pharmaceutical composition comprising the polypeptide variant of the invention may be formulated in lyophilized or stable liquid form. The polypeptide variant may be lyophilized by a variety of procedures known in the art. Lyophilized formulations are reconstituted prior to use by the addition of one or more pharmaceutically acceptable diluents such as sterile water for injection or sterile physiological saline solution.

Formulations of the composition are delivered to the individual by any pharmaceutically suitable means of administration. Various delivery systems are known and can be used to administer the composition by any convenient route. Preferentially, the compositions of the invention are administered systemically. For systemic use, insertion proteins of the invention are formulated for parenteral (e.g. intravenous, subcutaneous, intramuscular, intraperitoneal, intracerebral, intrapulmonar, intranasal or transdermal) or enteral (e.g., oral, vaginal or rectal) delivery according to conventional methods. The most preferential routes of administration are intravenous and subcutaneous administration. The formulations can be administered continuously by infusion or by bolus injection. Some formulations encompass slow release systems.

The insertion proteins of the present invention are administered to patients in a therapeutically effective dose, meaning a dose that is sufficient to produce the desired effects, preventing or lessening the severity or spread of the condition or indication being treated without reaching a dose which produces intolerable adverse side effects. The exact dose depends on many factors as e.g. the indication, formulation, mode of administration and has to be determined in preclinical and clinical trials for each respective indication.

The pharmaceutical composition of the invention may be administered alone or in conjunction with other therapeutic agents. These agents may be incorporated as part of the same pharmaceutical. One example of such an agent is the combination of modified FVIII with non-modified VWF or the combination of non-modified FVIII with modified VWF or the combination of modified FVIII with modified VWF.

FIGURES

FIG. 1: Antigen and activity levels of wild-type FVIII and FVIII-C-terminal albumin fusion polypeptides

FIG. 2: Comparison of human FVIII:Ag pharmacokinetics in VWF ko mice following i.v. injection of 100 U (FVIII:Ag)/kg FVIII wildtype and FVIII-FP 1656 VWF (mean; n=4/timepoint)

FIG. 3: VWF:RCo/VWF:Ag ratios of cell culture supernatants containing wt rVWF (1570/1212), rVWF-FP (1572/1212) containing C-terminally linked albumin, or a mixed expression cell culture containing a mixture of wt rVWF (1570/1212) and rVWF-FP (1572/1212) transfected in a ratio of 5:1. Values of about 0.8 were obtained in every case that are close to 1 which is the theoretical ratio of NHP according to the unit definitions.

FIG. 4: SDS-Agarose gel electrophoresis of wild-type rVWF (1570/1212) expressed in HEK cells (B) and rVWF-FP (1572/1212) expressed also in HEK cells (A). Bands were detected using either antibodies to VWF or to albumin (HSA).

FIG. 5: Comparison of human rWVF wildtype and rVWF-FP pharmacokinetics following i.v. injection of 100 IU VWF:Ag in rats (mean, n=2-3/timepoint)

EXAMPLES Example 1 Generation of Expression Vectors for FVIII Molecules with C-Terminal Albumin Fusion

An expression plasmid based on pIRESpuro3 (BD Biosciences) containing the full length FVIII cDNA sequence in its multiple cloning site (pF8-FL) was first used to create a B domain deleted FVIII. For that oligonucleotides F8-1 and F8-2 (SEQ ID NO 1 and 2) were used in a site-directed mutagenesis experiment according to standard protocols (QuickChange XL Site Directed Mutagenesis Kit, Stratagene, La Jolla, Calif., USA) using pF8-FL as a template to delete the B domain. In a second step a sequence encoding the amino acid sequence RRGR was introduced to connect R740 of the A2 domain with R1648 of the a3 domain. This was performed in another round of site-directed mutagenesis using primers F8-3 and F8-4 (SEQ ID NO 3 and 4). The resulting plasmid was called pF8-457. A FVIII albumin fusion construct was generated stepwise. First, a PinAl cleavage site was introduced at the FVIII 3′terminus. For that a PCR fragment was generated using pF8-457 as template, using PCR primers We2827 and We2828 (SEQ ID NO 5 and 6), which was subsequently gel-purified, cut by restriction endonucleases BspE1 and NotI and ligated into pF8-457 previously digested with BspE1 and NotI. The resulting plasmid (pF8-1433) was then cut with enzymes PinAl and NotI and a fragment obtained by PCR on a human albumin cDNA containing plasmid using primers We 2829 and We 2830 (SEQ ID NO 7 and 8) and subsequently digested with enzymes PinAl and NotI was inserted. The resulting expression plasmid (pF8-1434) contained the coding sequences for a B domain deleted FVIII followed by a PinAl site to insert linkers (encoding the amino acid sequence ThrGly) and the coding sequence for human albumin. The amino acid sequence encoded by pF8-1434 is depicted as SEQ ID NO 9.

Linker sequences separating the FVIII and albumin moieties could then easily be inserted into the newly created PinAl site described above. The insertion of two linker sequences is described in the following. In addition, based on pF8-1434, the TG linker might be deleted in completion and even deletions into the C-terminus of FVIII or the N-terminus of albumin can be performed using site directed mutagenesis.

Insertion of a cleavable linker, derived from the FVIII thrombin cleavage site: First a PCR fragment containing the sequence encoding the thrombin cleavage site at position 372 was generated by PCR using primers We2979 and We2980 (SEQ ID NO 10 and 11) and pF8-457 as template. This fragment was purified, digested with PinAl and ligated into PinAl digested pF8-1434. Sequencing verified insertion of correct orientation of the fragment, the resulting plasmid was called pF8-1563.

Insertion of a flexible glycine/serine linker: A PCR fragment containing the coding sequence for a 31 amino acid glycine/serine linker was amplified by PCR from pFVII-937 described in WO2007/090584 using primers We2991 and We2992 (SEQ ID NO 12 and 13). This fragment was then purified, digested by restriction endonuclease PinAl and ligated into PinAl digested pF8-1434. Sequencing verified insertion of correct orientation of the fragment, the resulting plasmid was called pF8-1568.

Using the protocols and plasmids described above and by applying molecular biology techniques known to those skilled in the art (and as described e.g. in Current Protocols in Molecular Biology, Ausubel F M et al. (eds.) John Wiley & Sons, Inc.; http://www.currentprotocols.com/WileyCDA/) other constructs can be made by the artisan to replace albumin by another HLEP or insert any other linker into the described PinAl site. Transfer of the FVIII/albumin cDNA into suitable vectors like piRESneo3 (Invitrogen) and pEE12.4 (Lanza) permitted expression and selection of clones expressing the respective FVIII albumin fusion protein in CHO cells.

Example 2 Transfection and Expression of FVIII and VWF Proteins

Expression plasmids were grown up in E. coli TOP10 (Invitrogen, Carlsbad, Calif., USA) and purified using standard protocols (Qiagen, Hilden, Germany). HEK-293 (Invitrogen) cells were transfected using the Lipofectamine 2000 reagent (Invitrogen) and grown up in serum-free medium (Invitrogen 293 Express) in the presence of 4 μg/ml Puromycin and optionally 0.5 IU/ml VWF. CHO cells (CHO-S, Invitrogen; CHOK1SV, Lonza) were transfected using the Lipofectamine 2000 reagent (Invitrogen) and grown up in serum-free medium (Invitrogen CD CHO, 6 mM glutamine for CHO-S and CD-CHO for CHOK1SV) in the presence of 500-1000 μg/ml Geneticin (CHO-S only). For FVIII expression optionally 0.5 IU/ml VWF were added. For vWF expression an expression plasmid encoding PACE/furin (pFu-797) as described in WO2007/144173 was cotransfected. In another experiment two plasmids encoding VWF wild-type and VWF fused at the C-terminus to albumin were cotransfected with pFu-797 resulting in VWF multimeres with wild-type VWF monomers and albumin-fused VWF monomers (see FIG. 3). Transfected cell populations were spread through T-flasks into roller bottles or small scale fermenters from which supernatants were harvested for purification.

Table 2 lists HEK-293 expression data of the constructs described in example 1.

TABLE 2 Construct Activity [U/mL] pF8-457 1.54 pF8-457 + 0.5 U/ml VWF 1.66 pF8-1434 1.59 pF8-1434 + 0.5 U/ml VWF 1.82 pF8-1563 + 0.5 U/ml VWF 2.04 pF8-1568 + 0.5 U/ml VWF 1.21

Example 3 Increased Expression Rate of FVIII Albumin Fusion Protein

FIG. 1 summarizes the results of an expression study of a FVIII albumin fusion protein in serum-free cell culture. HEK-293 cells were transfected in triplicate with pF8-1434 (FVIII C-terminal albumin fusion) and pF8-457 (FVIII wild-type), respectively, seeded into T80 flasks with equal cell numbers and grown in the absence of stabilizing VWF. Culture supernatant was then harvested after 96, 120 and 144 hours and tested for FVIII activity.

The results demonstrated an expression enhancing effect of the albumin moiety when present as an integral part of the FVIII molecule in cell culture. Consequently, the productivity was clearly improved in the case of the fusion protein compared to wild-type FVIII (FIG. 1).

Example 4 Purification of FVIII Proteins

To the expression supernatant containing the FVIII molecule a sufficient amount of an immune affinity resin was added to bind the FVIII activity almost completely. The immune affinity resin had been prepared by binding an appropriate anti-FVIII MAb covalently to Sephacryl S1000 resin used as a support. After washing of the resin it was filled into a chromatography column and washed again. Elution was done using a buffer containing 250 mM CaCl₂ and 50% ethylene glycol.

The immune affinity chromatography (IAC) fractions containing FVIII:C activity were pooled, dialyzed against formulation buffer (excipients: sodium chloride, sucrose, histidine, calcium chloride, and Tween 80), and concentrated. Samples were either stored frozen or freeze-dried using an appropriate freeze-drying cycle.

Alternatively, the FVIII containing cell culture supernatant is concentrated/purified by a first ion exchange chromatography followed by further purification using immune affinity chromatography (IAC). In this case the eluate of the ion exchange chromatography is loaded onto an IAC column using the above mentioned resin.

Example 5 Analysis of FVIII Activity and Antigen

For activity determination of FVIII:C in vitro either a clotting assay (e.g. Pathromtin SL reagent and FVIII deficient plasma delivered by Dade Behring, Germany) or a chromogenic assay (e.g. Coamatic FVIII:C assay delivered by Haemochrom) were used. The assays were performed according to the manufacturers instructions.

FVIII antigen (FVIII:Ag) was determined by an ELISA whose performance is known to those skilled in the art. Briefly, microplates were incubated with 100 μL per well of the capture antibody (sheep anti-human FVIII IgG, Cedarlane CL20035K-C, diluted 1:200 in Buffer A [Sigma C3041]) for 2 hours at ambient temperature. After washing plates three times with buffer B (Sigma P3563), serial dilutions of the test sample in sample diluent buffer (Cedarlane) as well as serial dilutions of a FVIII preparation (CSL Behring; 200-2 mU/mL) in sample diluent buffer (volumes per well: 100 μL) were incubated for two hours at ambient temperature. After three wash steps with buffer B, 100 μL of a 1:2 dilution in buffer B of the detection antibody (sheep anti-human FVIII IgG, Cedarlane CL20035K-D, peroxidase labelled) were added to each well and incubated for another hour at ambient temperature. After three wash steps with buffer B, 100 μL of substrate solution (1:10 (v/v) TMB OUVF: TMB Buffer OUVG, Dade Behring) were added per well and incubated for 30 minutes at ambient temperature in the dark. Addition of 100 μL stop solution (Dade Behring, OSFA) prepared the samples for reading in a suitable microplate reader at 450 nm wavelength. Concentrations of test samples were then calculated using the standard curve with the FVIII preparation as reference.

Example 6 Assessment of Pharmacokinetics of FVIII-FP in VWF ko Mice Following a Single I.V. Injection

In order to compare the pharmacokinetics of FVIII wildtype (DNA 457) and a C-terminal FVIII-FP (DNA 1656), both FVIII variants were administered intravenously to mice. A VWF ko mouse strain (Denis C. et al, Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA, 1998, Vol 95, 9524-9529) was chosen because, amongst other functions, VWF serves as a carrier and stabilizing protein for FVIII, thereby protecting FVIII from premature degradation, e.g. by proteases, and from premature elimination from circulation. For unmodified FVIII an undisturbed interaction with VWF is essential as exemplified by hemophilia A cases, caused by mutation in the C terminal region resulting in decreasing binding to VWF. In the case of modified FVIII such binding may, however, be even unwanted, in order to examine or achieve improved pharmacokinetics. Accordingly both products were injected i.v. at a dose of 100 U (FVIII:Ag)/kg as bolus to two groups of mice (Tab. 3). Blood was sampled retroorbitally at appropriate intervals starting at 5 minutes after application of the test substances and up to 24 hours. One blood sample/mouse was taken, processed to plasma and stored frozen at −20° C. until analysis. Human FVIII:Ag concentration was quantified using an ELISA assay specific for human FVIII or by a mixed ELISA specific for human albumin and FVIII, respectively. The mean plasma concentration of the, for each timepoint pooled, samples was used for calculation of pharmacokinetic parameters. Half-live was calculated using the time points of the beta phase of elimination according to the formula t_(1/2)=In2/k, whereas k is the slope of the regression line. The result is depicted in FIG. 2. Surprisingly, FVIII-FP 1656 (t_(1/2)=3.06 h, between 5 and 960 min) had an about 3-4 times longer terminal half-life as compared to FVIII wildtype (t_(1/2)=0.8 h, between 5 and 240 min). In addition, the recovery of FVIII-FP 1656 was increased by about 20% as compared to wildtype FVIII (Tab. 4).

TABLE 3 Treatment groups for comparison of pharmacokinetics FVIII in VWF ko mice Treatment Dose (FVIII:C)/volume/schedule/route N FVIII wildtype 100 U (FVIII:Ag)/kg/ 24 0.2 mL/20 g b.w./t = 0 h/i.v.. FVIII-FP 1656 100 U(FVIII:Ag)/kg/ 24 0.2 mL/20 g b.w./t = 0 h/i.v..

TABLE 4 Bioavailability (%) of FVIII wildtype and modified FVIII, FVIII-FP 1656, upon i.v. injection into VWF ko mice Treatment Bioavailability (%) FVIII wildtype 100 FVIII-FP 1656 120.4

Example 7 Generation of Expression Vectors for VWF Wild-Type and VWF Albumin Fusion Proteins

An expression plasmid containing the full length VWF cDNA sequence in its multiple cloning site was generated first. For that the coding sequence of VWF was amplified by polymerase chain reaction (PCR) using primer set VWF+ and VWF− (SEQ ID NO. 17 and 18) under standard conditions known to those skilled in the art (and as described e.g. in Current Protocols in Molecular Biology, Ausubel F M et al. (eds.) John Wiley & Sons, Inc.; http://www.currentprotocols.com/WileyCDA/) from a plasmid containing VWF cDNA (as obtainable commercially, e.g. pMT2-VWF from ATCC, No, 67122). The resulting PCR fragment was digested by restriction endonuclease EcoRI and ligated into expression vector piRESpuro3 (BD Biosciences, Franklin Lakes, N.J., USA) which had been linearized by EcoRI. The resulting expression plasmid containing the wild-type cDNA of VWF downstream of the CMV promoter was called pVWF-1570.

A PCR fragment containing the coding sequence for a 31 amino acid glycine/serine linker and the human albumin cDNA was amplified from pFVII-937 described in WO2007/090584 using primers We2994 and We1335 (SEQ ID NO. 19 and 20). This PCR fragment was then digested by restriction endonuclease NotI and ligated into NotI digested pVWF-1570. The resulting plasmid containing the coding sequences of VWF wt, the linker sequence and human albumin was called pVWF-1574.

In order to achieve expression of a fusion protein several bases had to be deleted between VWF and the linker sequence. This was performed by site directed mutagenesis according to standard protocols (QuickChange XL Site Directed Mutagenesis Kit, Stratagene, La Jolla, Calif., USA) using oligonucleotides We2995 and We2996 (SEQ ID NO 21 and 22). The resulting expression plasmid called pVWF-1572 contained the coding sequences of VWF in frame with that of a 31 amino acid glycin/serine linker and human albumin. The amino acid sequence of the expressed rVWF-FP is outlined as SEQ ID No. 25. The amino acid sequence of the human VWF preproprotein is outlined as SEQ ID NO. 24.

Using the protocols and plasmids described above and by applying molecular biology techniques known to those skilled in the art (and as described e.g. in Current Protocols in Molecular Biology, ibid) other constructs can be made by the artisan for replacement of the albumin sequence by another HLEP sequence or the linker sequence by another linker sequence.

Example 8 Purification of VWF and VWF Albumin Fusion Proteins

Cell culture supernatants containing VWF wild-type (rVWF wt) or VWF albumin fusion protein (rVWF-FP) were sterile-filtered through a 0.2 μm filter and dialysed against equilibration buffer (EB; 10 mM Tris-HCl, 10 mM CaCl₂, pH 7.0). This material was then applied to a Heparin Fractogel column equilibrated with EB. The column was washed with EB and VWF proteins were eluated with 500 mM NaCl in EB. The elution peak was concentrated and dialysed against FB buffer (3 g/L sodium chloride, 20 g/L glycine, 5.5 g/L trisodium citrate dihydrate, pH 7.0). Finally the material was sterile filtrated and frozen in aliquots. If needed, further purification steps were applied comprising anion and/or cation exchange chromatography, HIC and SEC.

Example 9 Analysis of VWF Activity and Antigen

Samples were analysed by immunoturbidimetric determination of VWF:Ag (OPAB03, Siemens Healthcare Diagnostics, Marburg, Germany) and for collagen binding (Technozym VWF:CBA ELISA, Ref. 5450301 with calibrator set 5450310 and control set 5450312, Technoclone, Vienna, Austria) as described by the manufacturer.

VWF:RCo testing was done using the BC VWF reagent of Siemens Healthcare Diagnostics, Marburg, Germany according to the manufacturers description. The International Concentrate Standard was used as a primary standard preparation to calibrate an in-house standard preparation for day to day use.

The ratios of VWF:RCo and VWF:Ag assays are calculated in order to compare this parameter for different constructs tested. As is shown in FIG. 3 the VWF:RCo/VWF:Ag ratio was comparable for wt rVWF and the C-terminal rVWF-albumin fusion protein.

For pharmacokinetic analyses VWF antigen was determined by an ELISA whose performance is known to those skilled in the art. Briefly, microplates were incubated with 100 μL per well of the capture antibody (rabbit anti human VWF-IgG, Dako A0082 [Dako, Hamburg, Germany], diluted 1:2000 in buffer A [Sigma C3041, Sigma-Aldrich, Munich, Germany]) overnight at ambient temperature. After washing plates three times with buffer B (Sigma P3563), each well was incubated with 200 μL buffer C (Sigma P3688) for 1.5 hours at ambient temperature (blocking). After another three wash steps with buffer B, serial dilutions of the test sample in buffer B as well as serial dilutions of standard human plasma (ORKL21; 20-0.2 mU/mL; Siemens Healthcare Diagnostics, Marburg, Germany) in buffer B (volumes per well: 100 μL) were incubated for 1.5 hours at ambient temperature. After three wash steps with buffer B, 100 μL of a 1:16000 dilution in buffer B of the detection antibody (rabbit anti human VWF-IgG, Dako P0226, peroxidase labelled) were added to each well and incubated for 1 hour at ambient temperature. After three wash steps with buffer B, 100 μL of substrate solution (OUVF, Siemens Healthcare Diagnostics) were added per well and incubated for 30 minutes at ambient temperature in the dark. Addition of 100 μL undiluted stop dilution (OSFA, Siemens Healthcare Diagnostics) prepared the samples for reading in a suitable microplate reader at 450 nm wavelength. Concentrations of the test samples were then calculated using the standard curve with standard human plasma as reference.

Example 10 Multimer Analysis of VWF and VWF Albumin Fusion Proteins

VWF Multimer analysis was performed by SDS-agarose gel electrophoresis as recently described (Tatewaki et al., Thromb. Res. 52: 23-32 (1988), and Metzner et al., Haemophilia 4 (Suppl. 3): 25-32 (1998)) with minor modifications. Briefly, after equilibration in running buffer ready to use 1% agarose mini gels (BioRad) were used to standardize the method as far as possible. Comparable amounts of VWF antigen were subjected to electrophoresis on the SDS-agarose gels. After Western blotting the VWF protein bands were detected using anti-VWF (DAKO, prod. No. 0854) or anti-albumin antibodies followed by alkaline phosphatase labelled anti-IgG antibodies (SIGMA, prod. No. 1305) and colour reaction quantified by densitometry.

Using wild-type rVWF (1570/797) and rVWF-FP (1572/797) it could be demonstrated by Western blotting and detection using anti-albumin or anti VWF antibodies that rVWF-FP forms a regular multimer distribution detected both by anti-albumin and anti-VWF antibodies (FIG. 4). This confirms that although every subunit of the multimeric VWF contains albumin, a regular VWF multimer pattern is formed. The albumin moiety obviously does neither inhibit the N-terminal dimerization nor the C-terminal multimerization of the VWF molecules.

Example 11 Assessment of Pharmacokinetics of VWF and VWF Albumin Fusion Protein in Rats Following a Single I.V. Injection

rVWF-FP and rVWF wt were administered intravenously to a total of 4 CD rats each. The dose was 100 U (VWF:Ag)/kg body weight, at an injection volume of 4 mL/kg.

Blood samples were drawn retroorbitally at appropriate intervals starting at 5 minutes after application of the test substances, using an alternating sampling scheme, resulting in samples from 2 animals/timepoint (t=0, 5, 30, 90 min, 4 h, 1 d for subset Nr. 1 and 0, 15 min, 1, 2, 8 h and 2 d for subset Nr. 2). The scheme was designed to minimize potential effects of blood sampling on the plasma concentration to be quantified. Blood was processed to plasma and stored deep frozen until analysis. The VWF:Ag level in plasma was subsequently quantified by an ELISA as described in Example 9. The mean plasma concentration was used for calculation of pharmacokinetic parameters. Half-live was calculated using the time points of the beta phase of elimination according to the formula t_(1/2)=In2/k, whereas k is the slope of the regression line.

The result is depicted in FIG. 5 (n=2/timepoint; mean). The terminal half-lifes were calculated to be 32.4 min. for the rVWF-FP and 2.6 min. for rVWF wt. Recovery was also improved for the rVWF-FP with 42.1% compared to 16.1% for rVWF wt. 

The invention claimed is:
 1. A modified von Willebrand factor (VWF) polypeptide (monomer, dimer, or multimer), or a complex comprising a Factor VIII (FVIII) polypeptide and a modified VWF polypeptide, wherein the modified VWF polypeptide comprises a VWF polypeptide fused at a C-terminal part of its primary translation polypeptide to an N-terminal part of a half-life enhancing polypeptide (HLEP), and wherein the fusion of the HLEP to the VWF polypeptide does not prevent dimerization or multimerization of the modified VWF polypeptide.
 2. The modified polypeptide or complex according to claim 1, wherein the modified VWF polypeptide has a prolonged functional half-life compared to the functional half-life of a non-modified VWF polypeptide.
 3. The modified polypeptide or complex according to claim 2, wherein the modified VWF polypeptide has a functional half-life increased by at least 25% as compared to the functional half-life of the non-modified VWF polypeptide, or the complex has a functional half-life increased by at least 25% as compared to the corresponding complex of a non-modified FVIII and a non-modified VWF.
 4. The modified polypeptide or complex according to claim 1, wherein the modified VWF polypeptide has a prolonged antigen half-life after administration to a subject as compared to the antigen half-life of a non-modified VWF polypeptide, or the complex comprising modified VWF polypeptide has a prolonged antigen half-life after administration to a subject as compared to the antigen half-life of a corresponding complex of a non-modified FVIII and a non-modified VWF.
 5. The modified polypeptide or complex according to claim 4, wherein the modified VWF polypeptide has an antigen half-life increased by at least 25% as compared to the antigen half-life of the non-modified VWF polypeptide, or the complex has an antigen half-life increased by at least 25% as compared to the corresponding complex of a non-modified FVIII and a non-modified VWF.
 6. The modified polypeptide or complex according to claim 1, wherein the modified VWF polypeptide has an increased in vivo recovery after administration to a subject as compared to the in vivo recovery of a non-modified VWF polypeptide, or the complex comprising modified VWF polypeptide has an increased in vivo recovery after administration to a subject as compared to the in vivo recovery of a corresponding complex comprising a non-modified FVIII and a non-modified VWF.
 7. The modified polypeptide or complex according to claim 6, wherein the modified VWF polypeptide has an in vivo recovery increased by at least 10% as compared to the in vivo recovery of the non-modified VWF polypeptide, or the complex has an in vivo recovery increased by at least 10% as compared to the corresponding complex of a non-modified FVIII and a non-modified VWF.
 8. The modified polypeptide or complex according to claim 1, wherein the VWF polypeptide is fused at the C-terminal amino acid of its primary translation product to an N-terminal part of the HLEP.
 9. The modified polypeptide or complex according to claim 1, wherein the VWF polypeptide is fused at a C-terminal part of its primary translation product to the N-terminal amino acid of the HLEP.
 10. The modified polypeptide or complex according to claim 1, wherein the modified VWF polypeptide has at least 10% of the biological activity of a corresponding non-modified VWF polypeptide, or the complex has at least 10% of the biological activity of a corresponding complex of a non-modified FVIII and a non-modified VWF.
 11. The modified polypeptide or complex according to claim 1, wherein the HLEP is selected from the group consisting of the albumin family of proteins and constant regions of immunoglobulins.
 12. The modified polypeptide or complex according to claim 11, wherein the HLEP is albumin or a fragment thereof.
 13. A method of producing a modified von Willebrand factor (VWF), comprising: (a) culturing host cells comprising polynucleotide or group of polynucleotides encoding the modified VWF polypeptide or the complex comprising the modified VWF polypeptide according to claim 1 under conditions such that the modified VWF is expressed; and (b) recovering the modified VWF polypeptide or the complex comprising the modified VWF polypeptide from the host cells or from the culture medium.
 14. A pharmaceutical composition comprising the modified VWF polypeptide or complex according to claim
 1. 15. A method for treating a blood coagulation disorder comprising administering to a patient in need thereof an effective amount of the pharmaceutical composition of claim
 14. 16. The method according to claim 15, wherein the blood coagulation disorder is hemophilia A.
 17. The method according to claim 15, wherein the blood coagulation disorder is von Willebrand disease.
 18. A method of preparing the modified von Willebrand factor (VWF) polypeptide according to claim 1, comprising fusing an N-terminal part of a half-life-enhancing polypeptide (HLEP) to a C-terminal part of the primary translation polypeptide of the VWF polypeptide such that the fusion of the HLEP to the VWF polypeptide does not prevent dimerization or multimerization of the modified VWF polypeptide.
 19. A method of preparing the complex comprising the modified VWF according to claim 1, comprising mixing FVIII polypeptide with the modified VWF polypeptide prepared by the method of claim
 18. 20. A method of treating a bleeding disorder comprising administering to a patient in need thereof an effective amount of the modified VWF polypeptide prepared by the method of claim 18 or the complex prepared by the method of claim
 19. 21. The method of claim 20, wherein the bleeding disorder is hemophilia A.
 22. The method of claim 20, wherein the bleeding disorder is von Willebrand disease.
 23. The modified polypeptide or complex according to claim 1, wherein the modified VWF polypeptide comprises a VWF polypeptide fused to the N-terminal part of an HELP, wherein the HLEP is fused to an amino acid of VWF located at a distance from the C-terminal amino acid of up to 1% of the total length of the VWF primary translation polypeptide, based on the total number of amino acids in the VWF primary translation polypeptide.
 24. The modified polypeptide or complex according to claim 1, wherein the modified VWF polypeptide comprises a VWF polypeptide fused to the N-terminal amino acid of an HELP, wherein the HLEP is fused to an amino acid of VWF located at a distance from the C-terminal amino acid of up to 1% of the total length of the VWF primary translation polypeptide, based on the total number of amino acids in the VWF primary translation polypeptide.
 25. The modified polypeptide or complex according to claim 1, wherein the modified VWF polypeptide comprises a VWF polypeptide fused at the C-terminal amino acid of its primary translation polypeptide to the N-terminal amino acid of an HLEP.
 26. The modified polypeptide or complex according to claim 1, wherein 1-5 amino acids at the natural C-terminus of the VWF primary translation polypeptide have been deleted, and wherein the resulting C-terminal amino acid of the VWF polypeptide is fused to the N-terminal amino acid of the HLEP.
 27. The modified polypeptide or complex according to claim 1, wherein the natural C-terminal amino acid of the VWF primary translation polypeptide has been deleted, and wherein the resulting C-terminal amino acid of the VWF polypeptide is fused to the N-terminal amino acid of the HLEP. 